page_title: America's Healthy Future Act
section_title: CBO scoring of the bill
hierarchical_section_title: America's Healthy Future Act / Proposal details / CBO scoring of the bill
caption_attribution_description: English: Ford House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 Obtained from http://www.aoc.gov/cc/cobs/index.cfm on August 15, 2006.
context_page_description: The America's Healthy Future Act was a law proposed by Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana, who chaired the Senate Finance Committee, on September 16, 2009. It is also colloquially known as the Baucus Health Bill, the Baucus Health Plan, or BaucusCare. Baucus initially publicly released a 223-page summary of the proposal. It started going through the Senate mark-up process on September 22. That amendment process finished Oct. 2, and was passed by the Finance Committee on October 13 by a 14 to 9 vote. An October CBO report stated that enacting the proposal would, on net, end up reducing the federal deficit by $81 billion over the 2010–2019 period.
context_section_description: The proposal was initially designed to cost $856 billion over the next ten years. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated on September 16 that it would only cost about $774 billion over that period. The CBO report stated that enacting the proposal would, on net, end up reducing the federal deficit by $16 billion in 2019. It also estimated that, by 2019, the number of non-elderly uninsured people would fall about 29 million, which would leave about 25 million of the non-elderly (about one-third undocumented immigrants) still uninsured. Thus, the number of non-elderly legal residents with insurance would rise from about 83% being covered to about 94% being covered. A Forbes.com report has stated that "it's not entirely clear what will happen to health care costs in 2020 and beyond."
  On September 24, the CBO re-evaluated the proposal, taking into account the changes created by the Senate Committee. The CBO stated that the proposal would bring in $23 billion in the first ten years. Specifically, the Committee decreased the penalties for avoiding buying insurance, expanded the subsidies, and lowered the excise tax on high end insurance plans. A CBO report issued on October 7 stated that enacting the proposal would, on net, end up reducing the federal deficit by $81 billion over the 2010–2019 period. That report prompted praise from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who called the scoring a "landmark occasion". Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), criticized the numbers as misleading given that the Baucus proposal would not come into effect for about another five years.
caption: Ford House Office Building, where the CBO is located.
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